I realize that, in the big scheme of things, this is small. But it annoys the heck out of me!
HH has to drive all over the state and out of it for work this week. I signed him up as an associate member on my AAA membership right after we got back from the HM. Welllll... he's been carrying around the expired temporary paper card for weeks. What happened to the nice plastic one that I handed him a month ago? Who knows! It probably went to the same place that his driver's license change-of-address update card went. He claims he never saw either one. Yeah, right.
They probably got buried in the piles of his crap that he stacks on the back of the futon, on the top and bottom levels of the coffee table, on top of books in the bookshelves, or on, under, and around the bed in the man cave.
My coworkers say that I must not start treating him like a child, but good lord, what's the alternative? Have bounced debit card transactions left and right, multiple expired insurance cards and months-old bank receipts lying everywhere, carry double car insurance on him for months because he keeps forgetting to call to cancel his old policy, and have important stuff getting thrown out in the trash? ARGH!
He'd better hope and pray that he doesn't have trouble on the road and need a tow this week. Grrr. I have had to change my whole freakin' life. He has had to change three things and has screwed every one of them up!
/rant. I love him. A lot. He's wonderful. But, my goodness, he doesn't make this whole aggravating name-changing, life-merging process any simpler, that's for sure.
Re: WTF HH?? ::headdesk::
this is an excellent idea! I'm sorry you are dealing with this. My HH is alittle like this but no where near that extent, he keeps it contained to his desk in our office.
Haha, thanks, ladies. I think that I'm going to try something like this. The problem is that the desk is "my space" in the house (he has a whole room, so I feel like I can claim a desk).
So I think that I am going to buy a nice, decorative basket on the way home. He gets home late on Tuesdays, so I am going to go through his crap and throw away the stuff that he should have thrown away a long time ago (old thank-you notes from his mother for coming to visit; expired insurance cards; bank receipts from 2 months ago). He insisted that we hold on to all of the cards from the wedding, so the card box has been sitting in the living room for a month and a half. Out they go before he gets home, and he'll never notice.
Then, from this point on, whenever he leaves paperwork or cards lying around the house, I'm going to gather them up and drop them in the basket. I'll have to see if I can get one that has an in-box sort of idea, too, so the honey-do items don't get buried under the other stuff.
Speaking of honey-do stuff, I made him a list for the first time yesterday and put it on his marker board. He groaned. Well, dear, if you'd done any of this stuff the first 10 times I asked you to, there wouldn't be a list to make, now would there?
Be careful on this. It might be better to throw in all in a box and ask him to go through it before you throw it out. You never know what he might be sentimental about. I did something similar with mason jars (that I could get again anytime from my mom) and I still hear about it. He didn't like that I got rid of something he asked me not to discard. If he wants to keep things that you find unnecessary, ask him to keep it out of sight.
I have all of our cards in a gift bag in our closet. I can't bring myself to get rid of them. I want to be able to get them out a few years down the road and read them if I feel like it.
I kept our wedding and engagement cards that were given to us. I got a HUGE plastic tote box thing and put all of my wedding stuff, planning stuff, extra menu cards/programs that kinda stuff in it and my hubby is going to put it in the attic. That way its all in one spot and protected as the years go by. It will be fun to look at it again one day.
I'm rethinking tossing out the wedding cards. I might just bundle 'em up and stick them with the guest book on a bookshelf. The box itself is going. He said from the beginning that he didn't want to keep the cards permanently-- just "for a couple of months" for some reason that he has never been able to articulate-- but maybe we'll want to go through them again someday? Dunno.
I probably won't actually be as ruthless as I threaten, but there is definitely a lot of stuff that will be getting tossed. Don't worry; I won't throw out anything that has some kind of value to him.
I have done the whole filing box to deal with the papers thing with my HH, and it worked like a charm!...until I moved out that is...every time I go back for a weekend, I see those misc papers everywhereeee. Granted, they're all in VERY neat little piles, but they're definitely NOT being filed in the proper spots/tossed out. I feel a major "tidying" will be in order when I move back in next week
Also, we are keeping the wedding cards. I am not much of a "keeper" of things, I love love love to do the purge/toss thing. However, cards are something I've always always held on to. And now I'm so thankful I have. My father passed away almost thirteen years ago (anniversary is on Monday) but I still have all the birthday cards and Christmas cards he ever gave me, and I LOVE looking at them. I feel like I'll be the same way with our wedding cards someday!
The card box we got for our wedding is actually a photo box that I cut a slit in. I got it for exactly this reason. I wanted to save our wedding cards. I have a hard time throwing out birthday/christmas cards, so I knew wedding cards would be difficult. I think I will probably keep them forever.
PS I am a clean FREAK! Luckily my HH doesn't really accumulate any papers. But, in our entry way we have a table along one wall. It has 2 drawers, and one is designated as just his. He throws his keys, wallet, cell phone, loose change, receipts, etc in there. I can't stand having keys and everything everywhere. I don't open it, and I don't clean it out. It is all of his. I also deal with the mail everyday when I get home, or he would probably pile it all over the kitchen.